


they deserved better

by khattikeri



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Character Study, Gen, Meta, No Dialogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:42:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23930269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/khattikeri/pseuds/khattikeri
Summary: An insight into what could've been.
Comments: 14
Kudos: 89





	they deserved better

**Author's Note:**

> pandemic things and final exams are killing me [finger guns] 
> 
> I know it might be; ;;;;; disappointing (?) that this isn't another chapter/update for my V3 rewrite. But my grades matter ~~unfortunately~~ a lot to me and I need to wait for my final exams to be over before I can rest easy and work on it. That being said, I did feel enough of an itch in my hands and a fire in my heart to write out this lengthy meta piece because V3 hurts so much to think about. 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy it.

** 1\.  **

V3 is the most tragic game because you see all these flawed characters who, by all means, should've lived and developed into better people, die before they can do that. Even the characters who die at the end of the game are unfulfilled, and therein lies both my frustration and my love for the game.

Rantaro Amami dies a complete mystery.

He's attractive, his (Japanese) voice actor is super famous and has lots of fans, his design is interesting, his personality is alluring yet aloof; he's the ??? of the game. He is caring and kind. But then the game slams the brakes and shoves his corpse in your face, and you're left wondering why the fuck the most intriguing one of the lot died first, before he could even voice who he was and why.

Kaede Akamatsu dies a martyr.

She's kind, she's optimistic, she's the first female protagonist of one of the main games! She has a personality and her FTEs are friendly and get to know the others in a deeper way that Shuichi cannot, both because of how he is and because of how much the others were willing to open up with her. But then the game tells you she's actually the first killer, and they snatch her away before you can see just how much greater things she could do.

=

** 2\.  **

Ryouma Hoshi and Kirumi Toujo die static.

Both are the biggest and best puppets of the game, unable to venture past the backstories and personalities the game gave them. Ryouma dies depressed and Kirumi dies with nothing else to remember her by but her service; both believing in a motive video that said nothing about who they really were, but rather about their talents and their fabricated pasts. Kirumi suffers this more than Ryouma, since everything about her, from the way she speaks to the way she acts to the things she does and dreams about, is about being a maid and serving others. It is because they die like this, so impersonally and so callously, that we're left wondering, would they have felt more complex and human if they were allowed to live longer? Would Kirumi have been able to come out of that shell of duty and become herself? Would Ryouma have been more amiable in a setting where he could positively grow past his depression and loneliness? 

=

**3.**

Angie Yonaga dies forgotten.

Not in the literal sense where nobody remembers her, but in the sense that her motivations and rationalizations aren't at all dissected the way certain others who share her character archetype are. Why did she veer towards heading an authoritarian regime to round everyone up? Why did she try to get everyone to accept academy life, and why was this ultimately the wrong choice? We don't know. Perhaps one of the few characters who die later on knows, but even our great thinker of a detective didn't bother to ponder on it. Not once. She is abandoned, unable to learn and grow from her naive, if not intelligently thought out beliefs-- unable to be understood. 

Tenko Chabashira dies loveless, both in that her affection for Himiko goes unrequited, and in that she is unable to view people of a different gender positively.

There is no gradual realization through experience that men aren't as bad or as stereotypically pervy as she wants to believe. There is no growth into becoming someone that Himiko admires on her own; there is no shifting of affections to someone who does appreciate her from the start; there is no acceptance of her male classmates that doesn't devolve immediately into comedic violence. Tenko is energetic and kind and fiercely protective of those she loves. And it is that love of hers, ironically, that dooms her to never being able to expand who she is capable of truly caring for.

Korekiyo Shinguji dies a disgrace.

There is nothing more metaphorically damning than the fact that his soul and his alone burns twice over; Korekiyo does not get off easy for his crimes, nor is he given sympathy despite the abuse he faces from his sister. He is intelligent, he is cunning, he is dry, and yet, he is thoughtful. He enjoys culture. He enjoys trying new things, and he is thrilled to see artifacts and scriptures. And still, he doesn't get a chance. Korekiyo dies unable to see he way his eyes burn a brighter gold, unable to see the lipstick smears on his own face, unable to see how this is all likely a ploy by Team Danganronpa to force the "creepy" guy to be a killer-- all he sees is the beautiful, cultured world around him, and all I see is the missed potential for a narrative where he learns to take a closer look at himself instead.

=

** 4. **

Miu Iruma dies a joke.

From her inception to her death, her intelligence and massive help to the group is treated as a joke, whether it's sex jokes or some other gross form of harrassment. Her death alone was caused by a roll of toilet paper-- and really, what kind of message does that send? Her relationships are few and far between, with her only close confidantes being a robot and a paranoid freak who she ended up betraying and who ended up killing her in kind. What would have happened if Miu had gotten to become a truly mature individual who grows past her suffering instead of turning it into something to laugh at or be grossed out by? What would have been if Miu had been given a shot at living, at explaining her complex over seeming "mature" being due to spending years of her childhood in a coma, and then being insecure that she wouldn't be able to catch up to everyone around her? 

Gonta Gokuhara dies gullible.

He dies serving his closest friend, going with the flow of what he is told, because he has no internal reason to believe in himself. For someone so sweet, he falls to a morose state fairly quickly, kicking himself whenever he deems himself too useless. It is a state of mind that could've been changed over the course of the narrative, but it isn't. He gets no opportunity or care to break free from his self-doubt, no chance to become more confident and proud of himself for being there for his friends. He isn't allowed growth out of his complex over how useful he can be for others; he dies believing he was useless, and that is one of the saddest ways to go.

=

** 5. **

Kokichi Ouma dies misunderstood in the end.

What better way to mark up a tragedy than by creating one of fiction's most interesting anti-heroes? Having someone who truly believes that the ends justify the means is one thing, but it is so poignant how Kokichi is never framed as fully right or wrong for what he did. He was certainly helpful to the group, but he is never praised; he is vilified for what he did wrong, regardless of the fact that it did help in the end, regardless of the fact that it was all a mask put up out of fear, paranoid doubt, and frantic strategizing. His feelings aren't dissected or even considered. And once Kokichi is put out of his misery, he is gone; there's no time or place to mourn the kid who clearly wanted to be friends with everyone but couldn't ever bear to surpass his own fragility, chance the frigid, harsh truth, take a leap of faith, and honestly open up his heart. 

Kaito Momota dies misunderstood from the start.

What better way to make sure your friends don't lose their minds grieving your inevitable death than to go out with a bang? Kaito is the most misunderstood-- unlike Kokichi, we don't get a clear grasp on his motives during the trial. It is only after he dies that we realize that he was faking it all along. Forgery! Fake it til you make it! His act is so good that it even deceives himself, and yet, Kaito is not entirely oblivious to it. He knows his passionate trust of people goes against conventional reason and logic. He knows he's a sham. He's envious of those he views as actually capable. He is no hero. There never was a "Luminary of the Stars". But he knows how much his happy, cheerful facade helped others, and even on death's doorstep, he goes out smiling. He always wore that mask from the start, putting up those walls til the end, and all of it was in his effort to put up a gentle lie for the people he cared about. Both during and after death, literally and metaphorically, Kaito isn't given a chance to breathe or to realize that nobody will dislike him for being himself rather than someone to idolize. 

=

** 6. **

Tsumugi Shirogane dies disappointed.

It might simply be because Danganronpa never humanizes its main antagonists, and it might be because the biggest mystery of the game was always meant to be her rather than Rantaro. We aren't privy to her thoughts or rationalizations, we aren't given her past as a means of explaining how much this fucked up show means to her. But even if we weren't, there was still missed potential in having her learn why she is wrong and why her show should come to an end. There is no moral lesson wherein she is a true self insert for the player and comes to her own decision to help them end the game. She waves, mouth twisted, clearly upset, and is crushed by a rock. And yet, as upsetting as her lack of development or change is, perhaps it is fitting that none of the four other survivors til that point made an attempt to persuade her to abandon her show-- to them, it is understandably futile to bother reaching out to someone and helping them develop as a person when they are an empty husk, void of humanity to begin with.

K1-B0 dies a star.

The death of hope, the death of the game, the death of all good and bad, leaving only morally gray behind. But his eleventh-hour sacrifice isn't as profound as the game would have you believe-- it is tragic in and of itself. The hope he leaves behind is the hope of escape from the cage, but even that is left open-ended. K1-B0's development from someone who believes in the abstract concept of hope to someone who believes in the actions of people is honestly the most heartening development in the game, and yet, it is snatched away from us just as quickly as it is given.

=

**end.**

Himiko Yumeno lives in regret.

She lives in regret that she didn't treat Tenko better while she was alive, even though she did care despite keeping a distance. However, her regrets don't manifest themselves in meaningful change. Rather than accepting who she is and being less irritable about her magic, she merely becomes less lazy. Her belief that Tenko's death would not have happened had she not offered to switch places, her belief that Tenko's death was her fault, her regret over it all, is skimmed over, and Himiko thus lives on, underdeveloped.

Maki Harukawa lives in regret.

She lives in regret that it was her rage and interference in the exisal hangar that led to the deaths of someone she hated and someone she loved. Yet even after it all happens, even after her refusal to listen to the truth of what Kokichi deemed necessary to end the game and instead be comforted by the lie of Kaito's positive figure encouraging her onwards, she continues to idolize Kaito, praising him for being heroic and mourning the boy she loved rather than valuing the lives that were lost from the bitter fault of her own impulsivity. 

Shuichi Saihara lives in regret.

He lives in regret that it was his faulty deduction from the start that triggered the rest of the game to happen the way it did; his inexperienced reasoning that caused Kaede's death and domino-effected all the others. His fault that he snapped and yelled at Kokichi, permanently shutting him out and causing both Kokichi's death and Kaito's to happen as they did. Shuichi Saihara lives on as a grim reaper, as "the last one", his faults lying in only realizing the truth when it is too late to save someone else from death. He grew, definitely, into being more self-confident-- but contrasting Korekiyo, the outward creep who understands the world more than himself, Shuichi is more of an inner creep who is in touch with his own thoughts to the point that he fails to understand those around him, though he tries to listen. He is analytical and not nearly as good at bringing out the best in people the way Kaede did, and it's because he misses the major early signs that he lives on, regretting and regretting and regretting through to the bitter end, when he finally quits for good. 

V3 is a tragedy because those who die do so without meeting fulfilling arcs, and those who live are plagued by their mistakes that lead to death. All sixteen are trapped, fates cut short by the cruelty of the game they're forced into, and all sixteen deserved to grow into their best selves.

=

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are appreciated! I'm @khattikeri on tumblr and twitter if you want to see more Danganronpa content.
> 
> Edit: check out this amazing [fanart by Seth on twitter!](https://twitter.com/sethphobia/status/1270764489013682177)


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